It actually tastes delicious. There is 1 can spam, 1 potato, 1 onion,1 red and green pepper, 4 cloves garlic minced, a little bit of water and some curry powder and soy sauce. Salt and pepper to taste. It was done in about 15 minutes and a hit with the family. I served it with rice and fried eggs and made 5 servings. I also like to add hot chili pepper sauce.

EASY ADJUSTMENTS (some of us are in pain)

If you have trouble cutting vegetables, boil the potato in water ahead of time in its skin. Then drain the water and rinse the potato in cool water. The skin should just peel right off. Put the potato in the pan and break it up with a spatchula.( It also works with carrots.) You can buy onions and peppers already cut up in the frozen aisle in the grocery store and spam should be east to cut up. Garlic can already be bought minced in the fresh food section of the grocery store. So, boil a potato, and prepare to get ready for the pan. Add sliced spam , then pour out the frozen peppers and…

The kids loved the recipe. The Hunt's tomatoes made it even better. Their tomatoes actually taste like fresh garden tomatoes. To make this recipe simpler just throw in some frozen onion and pepper stir fry and 2 tablespoons of minced garlic from the jar. SERVES 6

Ok, I totally screwed up my pictures. I can't always trust my phone! Well, this is the Tyson's Variety Pack that I found at the Commissary for only $3.99 (or was it $2.99? I can't quite remember but I remember being so excited about the low price I bought two!) My kids love a good after school snack especially since they are active. They love to microwave chicken nuggets.

I know some may think I am a bad mother for making them cook their own snacks but I see that they love to make their own snacks. I am raising future adults and they will have to learn how to cook at some point. I don't want them to be dependent. Some cultures teach this cycle of dependency. I have learned that you can't be truly happy without being independent. When you are independent you can grow and become a better person. Plus being independent helps you to make good choices and making good choices brings joy into your life. That…

They are so crazy they stand on their head!! I got some of these after Jon microwaved regular french fries for 8 minutes and almost started a fire. It took a few days for the smoke smell to go away. The next week we discovered Easy Fries by Ore Ida. They only cost about 50 cents depending on where you buy them so they are cheaper than french fries at McDonald's. I am not sure how they taste but my kids love them and microwaved french fries should be healthier than deep fried. I know baked are the best and I do sometime make baked fries but the microwave fries are great as an after school snack while I am fighting with one of the kids to do their homework or one is crying because I hid the X Box or something.

Twice over the weekend I had a craving for El Pollo Rico only a ten minute drive from my house. El Pollo Rico serves Peruvian style chicken. The service is faster than your basic fast food restaurant and the food is superior. Their menu is simple: chicken is various cuts, fried potatoes or yucca, rice, cole slaw and of course some quick desserts. The chicken is cooked rotisserie style with a Peruvian spice rub. It is very tasty and superior to Guapos another Northern Virginia favorite. The best part are the sauces. Both mild and spicy are delicious and I love to dip my fried potatoes into the yellow mild sauce. Even though I had the chicken twice I already want some more!

El Pollo Rico is popular with workers on lunch break because of their fast service. If you end up using your fingers because it is that good, they have wet wipes for a quick clean up. Their rice has butter, garlic, and salt in it. Everything is delicious! Next time you come to the DC area check out El Pollo Rico (134…

Wet Ingredients
1/4 cup of Chia Seeds in 1 cup of hot water (note: put seeds in blender for 1 minute and sift them through a sifter and then add them to the water. Then the cake won't be too crunchy)
1/4 c of honey
1/2 cup almond milk
1 cup of berries
1/4 cup of sunflower seeds (maybe only a couple of tablespoons, it really was too crunchy)

The only change would be to put in a tad bit more salt and no berries on top. The cake held together well where there were no berries on top. It tastes more like a health bar than cake and I liked it so next time I would put more nuts and less fruit. I guess if you are more of a sweet person than salty you could add more fruit or even some chocolate chips. Again, this is my first time experimenting with…

When I was 18, I babysat for this Japanese family on the weekends. The parents owned a sushi bar and the husband loved it when his wife was there at the restaurant. Unfortunately, there was no daycare on the weekends so I would babysit for her. I loved those kids! We would sit together and watch Japanese cartoons together. I got to love Sailor Moon and Japanese Thomas the Train. I learned most of my Japanese while babysitting the kids.

What is funny about the above picture is that it accurately recreates my memory of the Watanabe home. This is what their kitchen looked like and the mom had bangs like that. Her hair was permed but her daughter looked similar to this little girl and she loved to help her mom cook.

The mom was a professional cook but sometimes she was in a hurry and would put together a quick meal. This was her quickest and most popular with the kids.
Ingredients:
2 cups Short Grained Rice cooked
3.5 oz Box of Japanese Curry Sauce Mix (Golden Curry or Vermont)
Half a p…

It's Monopoly Time at McDonald's, the only fast food game I play. The Monopoly game is the only game I win anything in. I never win money but I usually win a sandwich or something. For example, I will buy a medium Coke and win a free breakfast sandwich. So I actually earned a profit. It makes it worth it to buy McDonald's.

That is where I come to some difficulty. You only get Monopoly game pieces if you order the Big Mac and not the Daily Double. I like the Daily Double. It is the first sandwich that McDonald's has offered in a long time that I like. It is not too high in calories and is cheap. It is a new improved Big Mac and not as messy.

So, I just take my chances with the medium drink. At least I get more of a profit out of it, sometimes.

Then- I became obsessed with what happened on 9/11 in Libya and was active on Twitter.

I am also having a contest with my kids to see who can read the most books. I am reading Young Adult books so that I can give them ideas on some good books to read. I have been reading Doctor Who books which are a lot of fun to read. I also have been reading Scott Westerfeld's book Leviathan. It is a biopunk England versus a Steampunk Germany during World War I.

I also have been chasing my little toddler around which is harder to do at 35 than it was to do at 25. It is still a lot of fun. I love 15 months!

I was attempting to make an Uzbek salad that requires only tomato and and onion but I decided it needed some green so I created a new salad. This is what I did:

Half an onion sliced into VERY thin rings, as thin as you can slice them.
Half a tomato also thinly sliced into circles. Garden tomatoes are preferred but unfortunately this is not this season for tomatoes, in the fall maybe just skip the tomatoes.
A handful of cut up kale leaves
Fresh dill and parsley to taste
Tablespoon of red wine vinegar
dash of salt, pepper, cayenne pepper
Teaspoon of sour cream on top

Sorry that I don't have pictures of the completed salad. Maybe the next time I make it I will add a picture. We were having a late dinner. The commissary had marinated steaks for only 2 for $6 so my husband and I had steak with this salad and slices of orange. It was a perfect dinner for the two of us. The kids had pizza before gymnastics with mozzarella cheese sticks that made my toddler sick. Apparently my baby has t…